Today, we are taking a look at Ornate Audio's Wisteria IEM cable which is part of the Cherry Blossom Series and each of them are carefully hand braided to perfection.
*DISCLAIMER*
These cables were sent to me by Ornate Audio for a review. My opinion will be unbiased and remain as honest and transparent as possible. I will not make bold claims that these cables will have significant changes in the sound quality or improve your IEM. It varies from IEM to IEM so please do not assume that whatever is written here will be reflected in your personal usage. At the end of the day, sound is a very subjective topic. Some may not be able to notice certain things that are different while some can. With that, I will continue with the review.
Ornate Audio was started by a group of passionate audio enthusiasts like many other brands. They are based in Hong Kong right now.
At the moment, they have 4 cables in their IEM category.
Black Peat
Firstly, they have the Black Peat which is the cheapest option they have. It is a 4 core copper cable and it is a great replacement option for your stock cable if you have broken ones. They are retailing at $65USD at the moment.
Wisteria:
After the Black Peat, they have the Wisteria which is their entry level cable. It is a hybrid cable consisting of 2 SPC and 2 Pure Copper wires. They are retailing at $110USD and we will be taking a look at it today.
For their higher end cables, we have the Lilac and Cherry Blossom retailing at $250USD each.
Lilac:
The Lilac is built with 4 cores of 26AWG Silver Plated High Purity Copper wires and 4 cores of 26AWG High Purity Copper wires. Just like the Wisteria, it is also a hybrid. According to their website, it is great for all types of music.
Cherry Blossom:
The Cherry Blossom is built with 8 cores of 24AWG High Purity Copper wires. According to the diagram on Ornate Audio's website, the Cherry Blossom excels in terms of soundstage and exceptionally excels in mids frequencies.
Build quality:
Firstly, let's talk about the build quality. Ornate Audio is very different from other brands.
Instead of the original braiding style, they have decided to go with a 4 core flat braid instead which I quite like. It's easier to coil up for storage and uncoil it when I want to use it. From the Y split onwards, it is just twisted all the way to the connectors. It even comes with a chin slider. It's very good because it doesn't slide down easily like other cables. They also fill their connector barrels with resin which helps to increase durability. You won't have common issues like the connector being ripped of from the cable with the Wisteria. The Cables also has a very soft feel to it and the ear hooks go around my ear nicely. If it doesn't, all you need is a hair dryer and that will do the trick.
Packaging & Accessories:
This is the retail packaging for the cables. It is just a normal square box with a lid. On the lid it has the Ornate Audio logo and inside you have the cable and a company card with their website and other information. Do note this is a review unit so they put all the cables into one box for us. By right each cable should come in their own individual boxes.
After taking out all the cables, I realized that the space inside the box was excessively huge. I do not have an issue with it but it would be nice if they could shrink the box so that they use lesser materials and save the environment or they could have put in a storage case. Otherwise, the cables are quite well protected.
Now we shall talk about the sound qualities of the Wisteria.
For the Wisteria, I tested it with as many IEM's I could from all price ranges. I did use entry level IEM's for the Wisteria most of the time though as I felt that I should be realistic. If you can afford a TOTL IEM, you should aim for the sky.
This is the diagram which I obtained from Ornate Audio's website. According to their diagram, the Wisteria helps to increase the soundstage tremendously. It also helps to smoothen out highs nicely and provides well balanced mids according to their description.
There is indeed no better way to describe what the cable does.
The Wisteria indeed does expand the soundstage greatly but I noticed more width than depth and height.
It does make the staging of the music sound more natural as well. It also helps to make instrument placement more accurate and well defined as well. Because of this, it is able to create the most authentic staging of the recording. At one point, I was listening to a track recorded by a musician I know and because it was poorly recorded, I thought my IEM was having channel imbalance LOL.
Highs are also very well smoothened out and obviously makes it very smooth sounding. It also helps to reduce harshness. Mids are also very well balanced with the highs and helps the IEM sound more coherent.
For the Bass, it does not really do much but because of the expansion in soundstage, it seems to be less concentrated and more spread out.
This is what this cable is capable of at a price point of only $110USD.
To be honest, its probably one of the best I have heard at its price range.
Conclusion:
At this price point, the Wisteria is a really great competitor to other cables in its price range and potentially a threat as well. In fact, it could even be a lethal competitor to some cables in the higher price range.
For a brand that is so new to produce something so amazing like this, it is truly mind blowing. Next week we will be taking a look at their Lilac cable so until then, stay tuned...
Purchase your Wisteria here now!